Getting Ready For Kenya With Brooke Action For Working Horses And Donkeys

Two weeks today I will have flown out to Kenya and will be visiting the horses, donkeys and mules which Brooke works with overseas. It’s a bit scary thinking of how close it all is now as this trip has been in the planning since January and been talked about for a couple of years, so I’m excited to be heading out this August.

Brooke Action for Working Horses and Donkeys is a UK based charity that protects and improves the lives of working horses, donkeys and mules and the communities that depend on them.

I have been working with the charity now for nearly 3 years through my work as a writer and Little Alf. I think if you have a social media following then it is really important to help raise awareness for charities. This has always been something I have said and I feel honoured to work with such a great charity. This January I became Ambassador for the Charity and have been doing lots of work with them over the past few months.

Over 100 million donkeys are currently working world wide, earning an income that around 600 million people rely on to put food on their tables, send their children to school and build better futures for themselves and their families. Sadly many of these animals are suffering from injuries, disease and malnutrition.

Brooke works in 11 different countries making a difference by training owners, vets and farriers and working with local national governments to improve the animal welfare policy. It reaches more than 1.3 million animals and around 13,000 animal owning communities each year as well as training almost 3,000 health care professionals.

I will be going to work with the Brooke charity for around 5 days. It will be great to see their work in action and visit the donkey care clubs. I’ll not only be gathering content for social media but I am also working on a book for the Brooke charity, so it’s going to be great to talk to the communities and find out what their donkeys mean to them.

Just recently I have been working with Brooke on the current skin trade issue in Kenya as Brooke is calling for a ban on the trade of skins in Kenya and is trying to crack down on cross border smuggling of donkeys for their skins. Hopefully when I visit Kenya I will be able to help raise awareness of this issue.

Not a very pleasant experience was having all my injections for the trip, but these are now done and I’ve just started to gather all my clothes together ready for packing.

I’m not sure what Alfie will think of my trip away as he’s usually really naughty for my parents when I’m not around...